ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. – While Hurricane Irma flooded parts of Florida, the Attorney General's office was flooded with price gouging complaints: More than 13,000.
That includes a complaints against the Kwik Mart on Bumby Avenue in Orlando, where Steve Rastocky went to buy D batteries before the storm. The cost is usually $5.50 for two. But he says the clerk was charging nearly $5.00 for each battery.
“Absolutely ridiculous," Rastocky said. "I said $4.99 per battery? Yes. I said, no, you're ripping people off."
News 6 went to the store Tuesday, finding it out of D batteries, but the clerk said no employees would ever sell them for $4.99 each.
"That's totally wrong," the clerk said.
The AG's office said the top two items that people think business overcharged for during the storm were gasoline and water. At a Sunoco on Edgewater Drive in Orlando, one person complained it was selling a case of water for $20.
"I don't buy it, I don't buy it, because I can't pay that money," said Rudy Escobar.
The store owner admitted some prices were increased, but only because the cost for transporting those items also increased.
What is price gouging?
The Attorney General's website shows it's when the cost of an item or service, "grossly exceeds the average price for that commodity during the 30 days before the declaration of the state of emergency, unless the seller can justify the price by showing increases in its prices or market trends. Examples of necessary commodities are food, ice, gas, and lumber."
While the AG's office said it looks into every complaint of price gouging, News 6 found most complaints are either not considered gouging or there is just not enough evidence to prosecute. During Hurricane Matthew, for instance, the attorney general's office received 3,000 price gouging complaints. Just 15 of those complaints were either litigated or settled.